Former junior international and FIFA intermediary based in South Africa, Mohammed Lawal believes Chippa United goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi is currently the best man the Super Eagles’ goal post at the World Cup in Russia.The South Africa& based agent, who spoke exclusively to AOIFootball.com, has challenged critics of the Premier Soccer League goalkeeper to take a flight to South Africa and study Akpeyi for 2-3 weeks before condemning and calling for his head.“Yes of course if you ask anyone who follows the PSL very well and who watches Akpeyi closely, he will tell you that with the situation Nigeria has now, Akpeyi is the best option the country has got at the moment.“When you look at the other goalkeepers fighting with him currently in the national team, I think Akpeyi is the best choice and anyone that questions his ability should take a flight to South Africa and watch him for 2-3 weeks and judge after then,” the former junior international said.Lawal further hinted that the problem with Akpeyi and the national team is more of a psychological problem and urged the Eagles’ technical bench to get a psychologist to help boost his confidence.“It’s more of a psychological problem for him (Akpeyi) wearing the national team colours. When ever he comes to play for Nigeria he needs a psychologist who can seat him down and work on him. With that, I am confident he will be alright.“But considering the other goalkeepers, they are no match for Akpeyi,” Lawal concluded.

_________________The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

Former junior international and FIFA intermediary based in South Africa, Mohammed Lawal believes Chippa United goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi is currently the best man the Super Eagles’ goal post at the World Cup in Russia.The South Africa& based agent, who spoke exclusively to AOIFootball.com, has challenged critics of the Premier Soccer League goalkeeper to take a flight to South Africa and study Akpeyi for 2-3 weeks before condemning and calling for his head.“Yes of course if you ask anyone who follows the PSL very well and who watches Akpeyi closely, he will tell you that with the situation Nigeria has now, Akpeyi is the best option the country has got at the moment.“When you look at the other goalkeepers fighting with him currently in the national team, I think Akpeyi is the best choice and anyone that questions his ability should take a flight to South Africa and watch him for 2-3 weeks and judge after then,” the former junior international said.Lawal further hinted that the problem with Akpeyi and the national team is more of a psychological problem and urged the Eagles’ technical bench to get a psychologist to help boost his confidence.“It’s more of a psychological problem for him (Akpeyi) wearing the national team colours. When ever he comes to play for Nigeria he needs a psychologist who can seat him down and work on him. With that, I am confident he will be alright.“But considering the other goalkeepers, they are no match for Akpeyi,” Lawal concluded.

If a player has psychological problems, is it not better to leave him off? That's admitting mental health issues, and should be a disqualifying trait in my opinion. Lawal did Akpeyi no favours with this statement.

Former junior international and FIFA intermediary based in South Africa, Mohammed Lawal believes Chippa United goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi is currently the best man the Super Eagles’ goal post at the World Cup in Russia.The South Africa& based agent, who spoke exclusively to AOIFootball.com, has challenged critics of the Premier Soccer League goalkeeper to take a flight to South Africa and study Akpeyi for 2-3 weeks before condemning and calling for his head.“Yes of course if you ask anyone who follows the PSL very well and who watches Akpeyi closely, he will tell you that with the situation Nigeria has now, Akpeyi is the best option the country has got at the moment.“When you look at the other goalkeepers fighting with him currently in the national team, I think Akpeyi is the best choice and anyone that questions his ability should take a flight to South Africa and watch him for 2-3 weeks and judge after then,” the former junior international said.Lawal further hinted that the problem with Akpeyi and the national team is more of a psychological problem and urged the Eagles’ technical bench to get a psychologist to help boost his confidence.“It’s more of a psychological problem for him (Akpeyi) wearing the national team colours. When ever he comes to play for Nigeria he needs a psychologist who can seat him down and work on him. With that, I am confident he will be alright.“But considering the other goalkeepers, they are no match for Akpeyi,” Lawal concluded.

If a player has psychological problems, is it not better to leave him off? That's admitting mental health issues, and should be a disqualifying trait in my opinion. Lawal did Akpeyi no favours with this statement.

I think he's saying that the mental issues can be successfully dealt with.

I've always found it an enigma how he gets rave reviews in SA but can't play a game in GWG without making a mistake.

I wonder if Croatia and Iceland are paying this fool to spew his nonsense.

The fact that you think anyone needs to pay him to express his opinion says more about you than him. I totally disagree with him but I can see where he is coming from. He is no fool- he has done more for Nigeria than you can ever dream of.

Former junior international and FIFA intermediary based in South Africa, Mohammed Lawal believes Chippa United goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi is currently the best man the Super Eagles’ goal post at the World Cup in Russia.The South Africa& based agent, who spoke exclusively to AOIFootball.com, has challenged critics of the Premier Soccer League goalkeeper to take a flight to South Africa and study Akpeyi for 2-3 weeks before condemning and calling for his head.“Yes of course if you ask anyone who follows the PSL very well and who watches Akpeyi closely, he will tell you that with the situation Nigeria has now, Akpeyi is the best option the country has got at the moment.“When you look at the other goalkeepers fighting with him currently in the national team, I think Akpeyi is the best choice and anyone that questions his ability should take a flight to South Africa and watch him for 2-3 weeks and judge after then,” the former junior international said.Lawal further hinted that the problem with Akpeyi and the national team is more of a psychological problem and urged the Eagles’ technical bench to get a psychologist to help boost his confidence.“It’s more of a psychological problem for him (Akpeyi) wearing the national team colours. When ever he comes to play for Nigeria he needs a psychologist who can seat him down and work on him. With that, I am confident he will be alright.“But considering the other goalkeepers, they are no match for Akpeyi,” Lawal concluded.

If a player has psychological problems, is it not better to leave him off? That's admitting mental health issues, and should be a disqualifying trait in my opinion. Lawal did Akpeyi no favours with this statement.

I think he's saying that the mental issues can be successfully dealt with.

I've always found it an enigma how he gets rave reviews in SA but can't play a game in GWG without making a mistake.

Does he get rave reviews? Reading SA's view on our loss them, they didn't have the most glowing things to say about his time in their league...

Former junior international and FIFA intermediary based in South Africa, Mohammed Lawal believes Chippa United goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi is currently the best man the Super Eagles’ goal post at the World Cup in Russia.The South Africa& based agent, who spoke exclusively to AOIFootball.com, has challenged critics of the Premier Soccer League goalkeeper to take a flight to South Africa and study Akpeyi for 2-3 weeks before condemning and calling for his head.“Yes of course if you ask anyone who follows the PSL very well and who watches Akpeyi closely, he will tell you that with the situation Nigeria has now, Akpeyi is the best option the country has got at the moment.“When you look at the other goalkeepers fighting with him currently in the national team, I think Akpeyi is the best choice and anyone that questions his ability should take a flight to South Africa and watch him for 2-3 weeks and judge after then,” the former junior international said.Lawal further hinted that the problem with Akpeyi and the national team is more of a psychological problem and urged the Eagles’ technical bench to get a psychologist to help boost his confidence.“It’s more of a psychological problem for him (Akpeyi) wearing the national team colours. When ever he comes to play for Nigeria he needs a psychologist who can seat him down and work on him. With that, I am confident he will be alright.“But considering the other goalkeepers, they are no match for Akpeyi,” Lawal concluded.

If a player has psychological problems, is it not better to leave him off? That's admitting mental health issues, and should be a disqualifying trait in my opinion. Lawal did Akpeyi no favours with this statement.

Shownoja,

But most of us do have psychological problems o! However, we do overcome them. It isn't something that is permanent as far as I know. For instance, a player who has a death of a close one before a game may in fact have a psychological problem that affects his play. That eventually goes away.

If you have an auto accident sort is involved in one, you are psychologically affected by it for a while. I believe that is what psychological problem refers to in this case. This is not an issue requiring some sought of mental rehabilitation.

_________________The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

He is very right, anybody that see Akpeyi in goal for Nigeria will see the feer in his face. And that is a psychological problem. Whether Rohr will now tey to cure that using the world cup matches are his prerogative. Seriously we have problem in goal keeping and Striking role. Uzoho is in division 3 in spain, Maduka is in second team in Germany, Ezenwa is in Nigerian league. Nwokolor is just coming back from injury, Magnet cant find a club and who knows if he will even come back after finding a club.

Former junior international and FIFA intermediary based in South Africa, Mohammed Lawal believes Chippa United goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi is currently the best man the Super Eagles’ goal post at the World Cup in Russia.The South Africa& based agent, who spoke exclusively to AOIFootball.com, has challenged critics of the Premier Soccer League goalkeeper to take a flight to South Africa and study Akpeyi for 2-3 weeks before condemning and calling for his head.“Yes of course if you ask anyone who follows the PSL very well and who watches Akpeyi closely, he will tell you that with the situation Nigeria has now, Akpeyi is the best option the country has got at the moment.“When you look at the other goalkeepers fighting with him currently in the national team, I think Akpeyi is the best choice and anyone that questions his ability should take a flight to South Africa and watch him for 2-3 weeks and judge after then,” the former junior international said.Lawal further hinted that the problem with Akpeyi and the national team is more of a psychological problem and urged the Eagles’ technical bench to get a psychologist to help boost his confidence.“It’s more of a psychological problem for him (Akpeyi) wearing the national team colours. When ever he comes to play for Nigeria he needs a psychologist who can seat him down and work on him. With that, I am confident he will be alright.“But considering the other goalkeepers, they are no match for Akpeyi,” Lawal concluded.

If a player has psychological problems, is it not better to leave him off? That's admitting mental health issues, and should be a disqualifying trait in my opinion. Lawal did Akpeyi no favours with this statement.

I think he's saying that the mental issues can be successfully dealt with.

I've always found it an enigma how he gets rave reviews in SA but can't play a game in GWG without making a mistake.

Former junior international and FIFA intermediary based in South Africa, Mohammed Lawal believes Chippa United goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi is currently the best man the Super Eagles’ goal post at the World Cup in Russia.The South Africa& based agent, who spoke exclusively to AOIFootball.com, has challenged critics of the Premier Soccer League goalkeeper to take a flight to South Africa and study Akpeyi for 2-3 weeks before condemning and calling for his head.“Yes of course if you ask anyone who follows the PSL very well and who watches Akpeyi closely, he will tell you that with the situation Nigeria has now, Akpeyi is the best option the country has got at the moment.“When you look at the other goalkeepers fighting with him currently in the national team, I think Akpeyi is the best choice and anyone that questions his ability should take a flight to South Africa and watch him for 2-3 weeks and judge after then,” the former junior international said.Lawal further hinted that the problem with Akpeyi and the national team is more of a psychological problem and urged the Eagles’ technical bench to get a psychologist to help boost his confidence.“It’s more of a psychological problem for him (Akpeyi) wearing the national team colours. When ever he comes to play for Nigeria he needs a psychologist who can seat him down and work on him. With that, I am confident he will be alright.“But considering the other goalkeepers, they are no match for Akpeyi,” Lawal concluded.

_________________"BIAFRA is a FAILED Project!! "Biafranism tends to make people hard of intellectual hearing"-ohsee.!"the problem with you people is that you want every thing to be Igbo and you pronounce it Igbo and then force it to be Igbo" IKWERREMAN"The trouble with you is that you are blinded by prejudice and only see what you want to see." CIC to Dr. SAB"..there are a handful of mindless Igbos on this forum that are an embarrassment to themselves"CiC

I think the agent was referring to stage fright. Which most althete experience. He either needs a psychologist or a an experienced player or mentor giving reassuring words or he could have clue cards with reassuring words (Serena Williams did this during a grand slam final). Or have words written on his gloves.....

Akpeyi seems to struggle at the beginning of games, especially when he faces the first couple of attacks subsequently he gets better, although the damage might have been done.

It's really simple to overcome, either he watches games where he has performed extremely well before he plays for Nigeria or a practice game is organised for him before matches where he is comfortable facing the ball and he takes that mindset into the game.

_________________By the grace of God I am a Christian, by my deeds a great sinner.....The Way of a Pilgrim

I would have liked to have seen him writing these words on his gloves 1 year ago or skyping with Serena Williams 1 year ago, not 6 months into the WC.

This thing is actually important to the ENTIRE country, we cannot toy around with it. I feel for the guy and I would like to be sympathetic, but if we have other options we need to look to those now.

The matches we are playing now are to consolidate our World Cup, everything we are doing now is for the World Cup. We are not in an experimental phase right now. So basically everything we are doing right now is about tweaking players, systems, tactics, strategies, personnel etc. that we have full confidence in!

Yes the WC is important to him as well, but this is the most important sporting/entertainment event for the entire country and if he is having psychological concerns, I think the answer is quite obvious.

_________________Bixente Lizarazu once described Spain’s football - which won them two European titles and a World Cup - as “love without the sex. It lacks a bit of spice”. News.com.au